1. Cut out the areas where the dampening strips meet the case.
2. The door - leave about an inch width of space on the right side of the door (the portion that will cover the power button. On the left side, leave about half an inch width from the edge so it can close, as thats where it will touch the case when closed.
3. Leave about 1.5-2.0 inches at the back of each panel. Because the door slides shut you need this extra amount of free space so it can slide in properly and so there is nothing to prevent it from directly touching the case - otherwise you can't close the sidepanel
4. I'd probably leave about .5-1.0 inches from the top and the bottom of each panel - mostly to ensure the acoustipack doesn't interfere with the latches at the top and bottom.
5. Interior - make sure you take into account fan brackets, sliding hard drive cages, etc. So you don't block off bracket holes or cover up areas you need free (ex. you'll want a little space in front of the 120mm fan bracket in the PSU chamber since removing the bracket requires swining it out a bit.
6. If you're worried about the complaints some have had about rattly 3.5 bay covers, apply some acoustipack to the back of each unused cover.
7. Consider using leftovers to insulate the interior of the spoiler - this will help eliminate a direct patch of noise, absorb some noise, and if you cover up the side slits and the top grill holes, you'll still be able to suck air from the rear portion in case you use the fan for blowing down instead of up (or not using the fan and allowing the rear fan to pull cool air from the top to cool off the CPU).
8. Be prepared to spend extra time figuring things out, even with the stuff I mentioned. Also, always make sure you measure twice and cut once.

Do you think it will be possible to use the Hiper Type-R Modular 580w PSU with the P180?
Will the rather thick cables fit inside the small hole that leads to the upper chamber?

Thanks for the advice, Shadowknight.

I have a Nexus NX4090 and I have an Abit AN8 Ultra and Antec P180 on the way. I also have a short 20-pin to 24-pin adaptor.

I have no idea whther the PSU cable will reach but the adaptor will give it a little more reach.

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/p180.html

Endpcnoise have the NX-4090 as an option included with the case so I can only hope that's a good sign!

Does Rivatuner not support the 6600 and 6800 series cards? I can't seem to find info about it. If it does, that would seem like a great way to log video card temps, unless it is bugged somehow, or doesn't work w/ some of the newer cards.

I do that with my 6600GT.

I've had my P-180 and new psu running for two days now. It is much more quiet that my Sonata was.
The blowhole is tentavetivly sealed now, it let out too much noise for me, I could hear the panaflo FBA09A12H1BX on the cpu. It's running at 8v, but that fan has to go. What I hear now is the Artic Cooling Rev 1 on my agp card, and this one doesn't even tick!
I got an AcoustiPack SFF kit and covered the backside of the case right from the start. Will use the artic cooling method on my next gpu too. Covered the two sides of the top empty hdd cage and the lower cage too, aimed the open pcb side of both hdd's towards the acoustipack. Insulated the roof above the cpu too.
Removed the sliding floor piece. Stole the floor insulation from the Sonata and put it in the P-180 to cover all the floor holes. I cut one side to side and one front to back slice in it to let the psu cables through. That does a better job of sealing the psu compartment.
After playing with the included fans I am running all three on low. A 25 in the psu compartment, 25 @ upper intake, 38 behind the cpu. That works best for me right now.
I really like the sandwiched walls of this case. Ran a defrag to hear hdd noise and closing the door makes a BIG difference in that small amount of noise. I don't think I'll have to use the extra acoustipack on the back of the door or sides.[/i]
Two pieces of new hardware..... a psu and a case have made a fantastic difference in the noise and the temperature of this 11 X 12 room. I don't hear my pc when I walk down the hall now
I'll miss the Sonata this winter when the house thermostat is set at 60, but I'll still be able to warm my feet on the subwoofer

Thanks Mike C, you endeavour is definately a success!

Let me propose something better.

Run RTHDRIBL in a window of fixed size, let it run for 60 minutes, and check the temperature on the graphics card while it is still running. Running 3dmark, then closing it or alt-tabbingout, then reading the temperature, is an extremely poor method of determining how hot your video card will get under load. You will be off ~5-10C.

Using 3dmark with rivatuner is better, but because the benchmark doesn't run that long, and starts and stops through its various stages, it isn't that good for measuring how hot your video card gets under a continuous load, either. And that should be our concern when building a system.

If you must use a benchmark, use Aquamark 3, since it loads the whole benchmark up front and runs more or less continuously for its duration. But I belive this is an inferior stress test to running RTHDRIBL with a fixed set of settings for a fixed duration.

With RTHDRIBL you can subject your graphics card to a consistent, repeatable stress test, and since you can vary the size of the window & increase the multisamples to insane levels, and control all the other aspects about how it runs through the program's options, you can basically create any graphical stress level desired.

Or you could get 3dMark05 Pro for 19.95$ as i did, and loop one or several tests. Theres no pauses that way and its a pretty good stress test with everything maxed out Of course i have the benefit of two screens, i can have ATITool and SmartGuardian running on the other screen so i can look at them all the time during the stress testing. Very handy.

Im happy with the P180, still needs some "minor" tweaking though.. Project UV Green is on its way

Heres a picture, the cables are a bit of a mess still, im waiting for my sleeving material to arrive, and i still have to make a wall in front of the upper drive-cage, wich isnt there but you get the point of where the wall will be. ill make a 120mm hole in that for the fan that i need to cool the graphics card and chipset. in this picture there is a 80mm nexus at the place where there will be a 120mm fan in the near future.

Btw. 120mm Cooler Master UV reactive fans are very nice, no worse than the Nexus IMO No bearing or motor noise i can hear, and you can get them in three colors, none of wich is orange

I have one question, will Mutemat Plus have any advantage over normal MuteMat in the P180, considering that the panels are pretty dead as standard?

Oh, i have a problem too, how the hell is that sliding thing that should seal the chambers from eachother supposed to slide!? I can remove mine but it wont go into the grooves no matter how hard i push it.. the front part works, but the bigger piece at the rear doesnt. anyone else had this problem? or should i just rip it out and mutilate it till it fits?

Tiny picture, sorry.

With one monitor and a $0 budget, I like my solution better.

Hi Nici



There are 2 main ways sound travels through a computer case.

1. It travels through the case structure (side pannels etc)
2. It travels through the air in the case

The main reason for the thick barrier layer in the MuteMat Plus kit is to add mass to the case. This changes the mass/stiffness characteristics and helps to reduce the transmission of noise and vibration through the case structure.
The adhesive layer has also been designed to provide damping to the case. Here the vibrational energy is dissipated to reduce the levels of vibration further. The 2 combined minimise the transmission of structural noise and vibration from devices such as HDD's and CD devices.

The MuteMat layer is the absorber, this is there to dissipate the airborne sound vibration levels as they pass through it.
As the standard kit has no barrier layer it does very little to prevent the transmission of vibration through the case structure.

When adding something like this to your PC it is important to consider what is making the noise in your PC and how is that noise travelling through the case. If case is quite light then it will be more likely to vibrate and increase the levels of noise. Here the Plus kit will have a much greater effect on the levels of noise than the standard kit.
If the case is quite rigid and the levels of noise transmission through the case structure are minimal, then most of the noise will probably be airborne and so, although both kits would do a great job, the standard kit would be a better choice.

Sorry the reply is quite long, hope it helps. If we can help you further let us know.

The MuteMat Team

Thread with lots of user comments here:-
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showth ... ge=1&pp=30

Hey guys!

This is my first post, i had hoped this would be a happy post, however this isn't the case. I just purchased the antec p180 after reading this fabulous review. I recieved the case from my ups man about an hour ago, i got it out of the box and put it on my work table. Man was the case freezing, its about 18 degrees F here in Indiana right now. Not only was it cold but the panels in the side panels were coming out. I pushed them back in but they just popped out again. I took them off to find that the side panels are warped. After removing them i was able to pop the plastic type panels back in after half an hour and two sore thumbs. Then i inspected the front of the case and i found the door to be bowed, sticking out in the middle and in at the top and bottom. I locked the door so that it was forced flat. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else. I'm thinking it might be because it was so cold. I'm waiting for it to warm up now, but i'm kind of upset, i don't want to have to send it back. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. also there are now fingerprints all over my case, whats the best way to get them off?

It sounds like United Parcel Smashers might have damaged the case a bit. How did the box look? Was it beat up or does it have creases, where it might have been smashed a bit and bent back to shape?

The box didn't look that bad, the case was packaged really well. The case isn't damaged its just the side panels have this plastic type stuff stuck on to them and it was coming off. there aren't any dents or scratches. It feels like they use some kind of glue, i could push it back down it would stick for a second then come back up. It seems to be sticking ok now, but its still popped up along the edge in a few places.

cmptrnerd6 --

Are you talking about the protective transparent plastic skin they apply to protect the real surface? Stuff that peels off like a skin?

Have you ever bought a monitor or a camera / cell phone with an LCD screen that had a plastic transparent skin you peeled off?

The real outside skin of the P180 sides is aluminum.

I created a quick trick for the VGA duct that seems to work fairly well. I pulled the duct off of the base mount and got an Antec VGA Cooler. I drilled one hole in the VGA Duct base and attached the cooler to it. I then used Electrical tape to seal the edges. Next I used clear box tape to cover the back of the cooler forcing it to draw all it's air from outside.



I have been able to run it at low and mid speeds without any noticable sound increase.

no no no. not a protective plastic. thank god i'm not that stupid. sorry i can't describe the part well enough, but its a piece of plastic inset into the side panel to help dampen the sound. I think it was just to cold. I was able to pop ithem back in and it looks fine now. Just a lot of fingerprints on the case now.

I´ve had my p180 for ~2 weeks now and it´s a couple of things I´ve noticed that annoyes me:

I can mention before I start that also my case was very cold due to the scandinavian winter when I got it.

First of all the side panels are quite difficult to put back onto the case, you really have press along the whole sidepanel at the same time to get it into place. And when you finally get it into place, the thumbscrews don´t fit that good, especially not the upper one. Honestly I son´t get the upper one in place cos the hole inthe case itself is a bit higher and to the side than the hole of the sidepanel..

The front door doesn´t go in line straight with the case, it points out 2 mm in the middle right which really annoys me.. I´m thinking of putting an extra magnet in the middle right to sort this up, but I´ve not tried yet. (I can update you later how it succeeded or not)

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7599/p1800108gy.jpg

The door has a very annoying kinda, dry, friction sound when you open it.

All the screws that were in place when I bought the case had rust on them on the area where they had been in direct contact with the case.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/9899/p1800094sm.jpg

But beside these the case feels like a really good planned case.

Give me feedback on my prbls, thanks!

ROUND 2: Antec P180 vs. SLK3000B, with Seasonic Super Silencer PSU
So BOTH cases are now using the ss460 ps, correct?
The P180 is less noisy yet also runs at a higher temp. than the SLK3000B.
I don't really understand the point of the ROUND 2 test on PG 10?
If the temp was lower on the p180 wouldn't the noise be up a little as well?
Is this test just showing that the S12 430 is better then the ss460?

I don't get it...

Somebody please explain what this test proves?

BTW the review is GREAT...most comprehensive I've seen...

" P180 in a high ewnd gaming rig."
in the postscript.

This was posted on anandtech a few hours ago.


There needs to be a smiley for "slamming your head into a wall." I've seen this claim appear in several forums over time, but even if you explain that the plastic is there SOLELY FOR ACOUSTICAL reasons, you still have people saying Antec is trying to cut corners. They would probably save cash making it all out of metal, not having to go through the trouble of making a hybrid design; the more you have to mix and match materials, the more difficult and time consuming it will to construct a case, at least in the case of the P180 where it uses them on the top, the al/plastic/al panels, and certain individual pieces like the panel that separates the PSU chamber from the rest of the case.

Feh.

Hi all,

I've had the P180 for maybe 6 months now, and right now I'm running it with a Core2Duo E6400 CPU/Scythe Ninja and a "space-heater" ATI X1900XT video card. I'd like to share my experiences with heating and noise levels. (Beware this post ended up being kind of long, but if you want ideas for setting up the P180 it might be useful.)

All my fans are controlled with a Matrix Orbital LCD display, and I use Dallas 1-wire temperature probes, along with the onboard thermal sensors, for sensing. Currently I measure CPU temp, Northbridge temp and GPU temp with built-in sensors. 1-wire sensors measure temp of Ninja base, Northbridge heat sink (Zalman NB47J) base, Hard Drive case, case ambient temp, and intake (room ambient) temp. The peak AC power draw of the system is 230-240W.

The drive/PSU bay has one of the thin Tri-Cool (not the noisy thick one) in the fan mount and a Seasonic S12-380 PSU. The system has one WD Raptor 150GB HD. Normally, the drive bay fan is running at 10% which keeps the HD case around C. I found that blocking off the unused HD slots with cardboard increases the airflow over the hard drive case and dropped the HD temps 4-5C.

I've done quite a bit of experimenting and temperature measuring with the upper part of the case. Before I got my new processor/video card, I had much less power-hungry components and cooling was not difficult. The new setup seems much more sensitive to air flow issues.

Currently, I have one Nexus 120mm exhausting the *top* hole, thus being aided by natural convection through the case. A significant amount of cool air is being drawn in through the open rear hole through the Ninja, keeping the CPU heat sink base at 34-35C at full load with the Nexus at about 50%. The fan on top option decreased CPU temps a few degrees compared to the fan in rear option, which draws air down through the top hole. A piece of cardboard is being used to block air from flowing straight from intake to exhaust without traversing the CPU heat sink.

As people remarked here before, Northbridge temps is a problem is general since there is little forced air flow over the NB heat sink. I found that the simple measure of rolling a piece of paper into a little tube and mounting this so that part of the air drawn in through the back hole is routed into the NB heat sink lowers the NB heat sink temp from 60+C to ~45C without an additional fan!

Before I got the X1900XT, my old Geforce Ti4200 with a VF700 (modded to use a Nexus 80) did not add noticeably to either noise or case temps. The ATI card is another beast. It has a VF900, which can cool the card well at full fan with a modest amount of noise. (Since the fan only ramps up when running 3d mode anyway, I find it's a reasonable compromise since you'll probably have the sound turned up.) However, the ~100W the card uses has to be disposed of somehow. Without the duct in place, the heat flows up over the Ninja, and the top Nexus, even at full, can't exhaust the air fast enough. Case temps slowly build up until everything starts getting uncomfortably warm. With the dreaded VGA duct mounted and a low-profile undervolted 80mm fan exhausting air from directly around the VF900, the case temp situation improves significantly. The air coming out of the duct vent on the back is HOT, so it's quite efficient to get rid of heat this way. With the duct fan controlled along with the GPU fan, they will ramp up together and thus not affect idle noise, and with a suitable fan I think it won't add much to the noise level above the VF900 fan.

I think the end result is that, with active fan control, you can build a P180 setup which is almost entirely silent (apart from HD seek noise) for everyday use, is almost as quiet for heavy CPU load (at least with the energy-efficient Core2Duo or low-power A64), and has very low noise level for a high-end graphics card machine.

Many thanks to the SPCR team for the excellent P180 review which made me decide to get the case and also gave ideas for things to try!

/Patrik

I actually had this case for a few months and then switched to a Antec Sonata II because the P180 was just too heavy. Well, the Sonata II was nothing for cooling so I switched back recently.

I found it best to have the upper 120mm fan as intake and the rear 120mm fan as exhaust. It helps bring in nice cool air to the CPU a lot better and lowered my overall temps.

Anyone else have the upper fan as intake?